The Wild West: Instagram and Influencer Marketing

Seeing is no longer just believing. Seeing is buying, too--which is why visuals matter in 93% of the cases when people buy something.

Without visual content, brands won’t have a story to tell

Research aside, visual content matters to our customers. Especially for our B2C clients, we’ve seen an upsurge in influencer marketing strategies that rely on creative platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest to share visual content with their communities. That’s because consumers, and influencers, prefer visual content.

No longer the Wild West: Instagram regulates influencer marketing

Up until recently, some of these creative platforms, including Instagram, felt like the Wild West when it came to regulating sponsorships, influencer marketing, and content sharing. However, due to instances of influencer-marketing-gone-terribly-wrong, Instagram started to crack down on those that were diminishing the value of the platform for users, brands, and ultimately, influencers themselves.

With increased regulations, Instagram has since shut down the vast majority of these offending networks. To avoid the problem of “dodgy third party apps”, Instagram restricted third-party access to its API, including shutting down companies like Flipboard. Given this wide crackdown, leveraging visual content and influencer marketing is no longer so cut and dry.

How Traackr will increase value for Instagram users

Traackr’s relationship-focused approach to influencer marketing has always been aligned to Instagram’s vision to create a better experience for instagrammers. Instagram aims to increase value for its users, driving traffic to its site in the process. Influencers and brands alike bring more authentic and meaningful content to the platform.

That’s why we at Traackr have moved towards content visualization, which looks and feels like the ways users consume content. We’re proud to announce our Visual Influencer Content Stream (VICS), an enhancement that simplifies the way our users collect and manage visual content across creative platforms. Made possible by our partnership with Instagram, we’ve expanded our access to Instagram data to increase the overall value of our platform.

Traackr's Visual Influencer Content Stream (VICS)

For some, working with Instagram includes complexities. But this is why we have prioritized our partnership with Instagram... because visual content is what matters to our customers most.

Stay tuned for more to come on visual content in influencer marketing.